Milner’s praise for tough nuts

JAMES MILNER today confessed that injuries have already tested the resolve of Newcastle United’s squad this season – but insists Sam Allardyce has instilled extra toughness into his squad to aid the Magpies’ bid for glory.

JAMES MILNER today confessed that injuries have already tested the resolve of Newcastle United’s squad this season – but insists Sam Allardyce has instilled extra toughness into his squad to aid the Magpies’ bid for glory.

Last season, Toon winger Milner was one of the few players to make it through the campaign without sustaining any major injuries, as the likes of Michael Owen, Kieron Dyer and Shay Given all missed large chunks of the term in the treatment room.

And this season has already seen Joey Barton (right), Stephen Carr, Peter Ramage and Given again fall victim to the injury jinx.

However, with over 20 new scientific staff in place to help remedy the long-standing injury troubles that plagued both Glenn Roeder and Graeme Souness, Milner says his team-mates are ready to don their tin hats and battle through their problems.

And after Wigan were charged by the FA for failing to control their players in a stormy game, in which Steven Taylor was twice wiped out by late challenges and Steve Harper ended the game with a fat lip following a clash with Emile Heskey, Milner told the Chronicle: “Our resistance has already been tested – you saw that against Wigan.

“But that’s what we need. We now have a squad of players that will put their bodies on the line for Newcastle United.

“All we want now is to get wins for the fans.

“Against Wigan a number of players got knocks, but we battled through it and kept going.

“We got the three points and that’s the important thing.

“It shows we have great spirit and what a great squad togetherness we have.”

United tried both a 4-3-3 formation and a 4-4-2 system in their bid for glory against Wigan, and Milner is confident in United’s ability to mix things this term.

With the likes of his England Under-21 colleague Taylor able to move across to right-back and get forward, United have more than one string to their bow this term.

And with Milner operating on the left-hand side of a three-man attack, he revealed there could be more positional changes to come.

Milner – who will star in England Under-21’s clash with Montenegro in Podgorica tonight – added: “Teams will play different ways against you and you have to adapt and break them down.

“We changed it a little bit against Wigan and it worked. We have a lot of players in the squad who can play in more than one position.